Self-hosting a Matrix server for 5 years

Self-hosting a Matrix server for 5 years

Experiences with the Matrix protocol, Matrix Synapse server, bridges, and Element mobile apps.

I have been hosting a Matrix server for about five years now, mostly for text chats between a few relatives and close friends, and a bridge to WhatsApp for a few more people. These are my experiences.

Matrix protocol

I don't have many thoughts on the protocol itself.

The only thing that I don't really understand is the decision on data replication. If a user on server A joins a room on server B, recent room data is copied from server B to server A and then kept in sync on both servers. I suppose this reduces the load on the original server at the expense of federation overhead and space on other servers. However, this also creates a situation where anything said across federation cannot be unsaid, which is an ironic situation for a protocol/system that often comes up when talking about privacy.

IIRC, fediverse/ActivityPub uses a similar approach.

Synapse server

Synapse is the only choice that supports bridges, which was why I wanted to try Matrix in the first place. And back in 2019-2020 this was the only choice anyway.

As of right now, I run Synapse, PostgreSQL, and coturn directly, without containerization, on a small VPS.

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